Netanyahu Policy on the Ground: Another Outpost Taken Down

Netanyahu’s administration continued its policy of destroying outposts throughout Judea and Samaria, this time targeting Mitzpeh Avichai.

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Yehudah Lev Kay, 16/06/09 16:51

Mitzpe Avichai

Israel News Photo: (file)

Only two days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made a strongly worded policy speech, his administration continued its policy on the ground of destroying unauthorized outposts throughout Judea and Samaria.

This time security forces took down the Mitzpe Avichai outpost near Kiryat Arba. Border police forces arrived at the site around 3:00 a.m. and destroyed the outpost, which had been rebuilt after security forces evacuated it a little over two weeks ago.

One family currently lives in Mitzpe Avichai, and a second plans on joining in the near future. The outpost residents promised to rebuild immediately.

As a response to Netanyahu’s policy speech, in which he accepted the idea of a demilitarized Palestinian Authority state, nationalist activists promised to build dozens of new outposts throughout Judea and Samaria. National Union MK Michael Ben-Ari has praised the activists as the “new generation of Zionists.”

The government says that many outposts in Judea and Samaria are unauthorized and that destroying them is a question of maintaining the rule of law. Opponents claim the government refuses to deal with hundreds of cases of illegal Arab construction throughout Israel, and that destroying Jewish outposts is a political decision.